WARMINSTER skipper Tom Davie is hoping that his troops can maintain their enthusiasm for the final month of the season, despite their campaign edging towards mid-table obscurity.

Davie’s men find themselves a sizeable distance behind from the Glos/Wilts Division promotion shake-up and are also 25 points clear of the relegation zone as they look set for a mid-table finish.

Warminster have already begun to lay the groundwork for next season with the signing of young bowler Ollie Weaver from Bath 2nds and captain Davie is targeting a positive end to the season as his team look to involve themselves the top-of-the-table shake-up next summer.

“Unfortunately, we’ve got no chance of getting promotion this year because we’re too far away from the top of the table and we’re not close enough to the bottom that we need to buck our ideas up,” said Davie.

“It can be tough to get yourself up for games when you know that you can’t win anything but what I want is for us to carry on doing the best we can and have a good finish for the season to set us up for next year.

“We think that we can do better than we have done this year, even though it was a bit of a consolidation year after a disappointing one last season.

“We’ve already brought in Ollie Weaver as a new signing, who’s looks like a good addition, especially for a young lad, and hopefully we can pick up a few positive results in the last few games.”

Warminster were on the end of a five-wicket defeat at third-placed Swindon last weekend, with Vibhor Yadav spearheading the hosts’ successful run chase.

Davie’s men batted first after winning the toss but got off to a difficult start, losing their first three wickets for just 48 runs.

Desmond Kruger (76) and Richard Davie (65) came in to attempt to steady the ship and Warminster did manage to reach 212 before they were skittled in the final over, with Swindon’s Matthew Kidd taking three wickets.

John Powell (2-35) did his best to hamper the home side’s innings but Yadav fired Swindon into the ascendancy with a knock of 97 off 87 deliveries.

Jonathan Sore chipped in with 31 as the hosts reached 216-5 early in the 43rd over.

Warminster captain Davie added: “We dropped him (Yadav) when he was on about 14 and as they say, catches win matches.

“We probably didn’t score enough runs and that’s something we’ve not done all season, even though our bowling has been good.”

Elsewhere, Westbury’s woes continued as they suffered a fifth-straight defeat at title-chasing Rockhampton.

Guy Brothwood hit a hefty unbeaten 108 for the home side whilst Matt Tyler weighed in with 45 as Rockhampton posted 262-7, with Westbury’s Martin Dolman taking 3-40.

Skipper Alex Senneck (48) top-scored for the visitors are they looked to fight back, with Simon Rose (42) and Jaques Prinsloo also contributing (30).

But three wickets apiece from Rockhampton’s Sam Nichols, William Cartlidge and Brothwood saw Westbury dismissed for 194 with less than three overs remaining.

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